The price for a ticket for these bowl games is the same as a cup of Starbucks coffee

For less than the price of a Scooter’s Coffee Caramelicious Espresso, one can attend the First Responder Bowl.

According to StubHub, a ticket to the First Responder Bowl will cost you $5.

A large Scooter’s Coffee Caramelicious Espresso will cost you $5.95, plus tax.

An actual ticket to the Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl will cost you the price of five Caramelicious Espresso drinks: $32.

You probably missed it, but the 2023 college football bowl season has begun and the postseason games that are played throughout Texas start on Tuesday night with UTSA (8-4) playing Marshall (6-6) in the Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl at Toyota Stadium.

Whatever we thought was going to happen to bowl season, all it does is spawn. The earth will end, and there will still be a full slate of college football bowl games.

In Jan. of 2014, one year before the first college football playoff games, I asked then Cotton Bowl board member Tommy Bain what he thought would happen to the bowls. That was the final year of the “old” BCS system, before the current four-team playoff model, and there was speculation that the middle and third tier bowls would end.

“Think when the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was created (in 1998), there were (23) bowls,” he said. “Now there are 35 or 36. I think what you could see is it may eventually come back to that.”

In the year 3023, he may be right. It’s the year 2023, and we are now up to 42 bowl games.

Other than about five or six of these games, bowls have become spring practices in the winter. Many of them have become a joke, akin to the mid-July NASCAR race with a corporate title that is worthy of multiple punchlines.

Rather than play in the Vagisil PH Balance Daily Intimate Vaginal Feminine Wash Bowl, players are opting out in favor of preparing for the NFL Draft.

On Monday, LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels made history when he said he will not play against Wisconsin in the ReliaQuest Bowl; he is the first Heisman Trophy winning player to opt out of a bowl game.

Players are entering the NCAA’s ever expanding portal to transfer to another school before their current team’s bowl appearance.

Rather than play against Missouri in the Cotton Bowl, Ohio State’s starting quarterback, Kyle McCord, announced he is transferring to Syracuse. Since Florida State learned it was robbed of a playoff spot, a handful of Seminoles announced their intentions to transfer ahead of their scheduled game, the Orange Bowl.

Once one of college football’s most sacred games, in some seasons the Orange Bowl is now the same as the TransPerfect Music City Bowl. (No clue what “TransPerfect” is but it surely makes a lot of people uncomfortable because of what it could mean).

“The expansion of the bowls is a reason to play the game, provided the player doesn’t opt out or go into the portal,” Cotton Bowl executive director Dave Brown said in a recent phone interview. “I don’t see anything negative about it. I see all positives. I see multiples of possibilities and reasons to celebrate not only the 12-team playoff (starts next year), but the chance to play the game.”

The demand for most of these games exists mostly for sports-networks that want live programming.

To the ticket buyer who is looking for something to do, with few exceptions, it’s usually less expensive to attend a college bowl game than a high school football game. A college football bowl game could be less expensive than attending a movie in a theater.

These are the bowl games scheduled to be played in Texas. Plenty of good seats still available. The prices listed are the lowest listed among the secondary sites such as StubHub, SeatGeek, VividSeats, EBay, etc.

Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl, Dec. 19

UTSA vs. Marshall; Toyota Stadium, Frisco

Price: $32

Because of the proximity of San Antonio to Frisco, the demand for this game is “high,” hence these ticket prices to see UTSA quarterback Frank Harris play his last game as a Roadrunner after a brilliant 9-year college career.

Armed Forces Bowl, Dec. 23

James Madison vs. Air Force; Amon G. Carter Stadium, Fort Worth

Price: $6

JMU is in the second year of transitioning to FBS, and technically was not eligible for a bowl. JMU nearly sued the NCAA to gain eligibility for a bowl game, but avoided the legal bill because the NCAA did not have enough bowl-eligible teams among its 133 FBS schools.

SERVPRO First Responder Bowl, Dec. 26

Texas State vs. Rice; Gerald J. Ford Stadium, SMU campus in Dallas

Price: $5

Texas State’s enrollment is more than 38,000, so maybe not everyone got the memo that this is the Bobcats’ first appearance in a bowl game since it joined the FBS level, in 2012.

TaxAct Texas Bowl, Dec. 27

Texas A&M vs. No. 20 Oklahoma State; NRG Stadium, Houston

Price: $70

The proximity of two large state schools creates more of a demand for a game that usually doesn’t have a lot. A&M will not be coached by new head coach Mike Elko, instead the Aggies “head coach” for this game will be interim Elijah Robinson, who after the game will become the defensive coordinator at Syracuse.

Got all that?

Valero Alamo Bowl, Dec. 28

No. 14 Arizona vs. No. 12 Oklahoma; Alamodome, San Antonio

Price: $42

Fun facts: This is Arizona’s first bowl since 2017, and its best team since 2014 when it made the Fiesta Bowl. Oklahoma’s starting quarterback, Dillon Gabriel, left the program to play at Oregon next season.

Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl, Dec. 29

No. 19 Oregon State vs. No. 16 Notre Dame, Sun Bowl Stadium, El Paso

Price: $18

Few second-tier bowl games are supported quite like the one now named for a cereal box character. Notre Dame fans exist all over the world, and this may actually be a decent game ... if the players care enough to try.

Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, Dec. 29

No. 9 Missouri vs. No. 7 Ohio State, AT&T Stadium, Arlington

Price: $85

Ohio State opened as a 6.5-point favorite, and then the transfer portal opened. Now, the Tigers are 3.5-point favorites.

College football playoff national championship, Jan. 8

Winner of No. 3 Texas/No. 2 Washington vs. No. 1 Michigan/No. 4 Alabama, NRG Stadium, Houston

Price: $1,381

If Texas makes it, chances are good this will be the most expensive ticket in the history of any bowl game.